Hopi Kona - Chipmunk Katsina Doll in Flat Form [SOLD]

This Chipmunk Katsina doll is of the flat style made for and given to infants as their earliest katsina dolls.  It is not signed with the name of the maker as dolls that are made to be presented by katsinas during a plaza dance are meant to be gifts from the katsinas to the recipient, presumably having been made by the katsinas.

The Kona Katsina is one of a group of Katsinas considered Wawash Katsinas or Runner Katsinas.  A good explanation of this group is presented in the book Kachinas: the Barry Goldwater Collection at the Heard Museum, which we quote:

"Often during the Plaza Dances a number of masked personages appear that are neither dancers nor clowns.  These individuals are the Runner or Wawash Kachinas.  They are easily recognized by their abbreviated costumes with few encumbrances, and by the large eye and nose holes in their masks which allow them both adequate vision and breath as they run.

"Assembling at one end of the plaza, usually during a pause in kachina dancing, they spread a blanket and place upon it many varieties of food.  Then prancing up and down and rushing about they invite any and all to race against them.  If no challenger is immediately forthcoming they may inveigle some hapless clown into stepping in front of the blanket.  The results are instantaneous for as soon as any one steps before the blanket the race is on and they start in a flash.  Should the challenger win, he receives a prize but if he loses he receives the punishment meted out by the particular kachina that overtook him.  This punishment may range from a vigorous blow with a yucca leaf whip to having the shirt ripped off his back.  Other favored punishments include having several locks of hair cut off with sheep shears or rubbing the loser's face with ordure or grease and soot.

"While the episode provokes great merriment, it has a serious function as well.  The purpose appears to be a reinforcement of the habit of running, as well as the ritual encouragement of the kachinas to hasten with their benefit (namely water)."

Condition: this Hopi Kona - Chipmunk Katsina Doll in Flat Form is in very good condition

Provenance: from the extensive collection of a family from Oklahoma, originally purchased in 2004 from Dewey Galleries, Santa Fe

Recommended Reading: Kachinas: the Barry Goldwater Collection at the Heard Museum by Barton Wright, 1975